Link Start: A Miraculous Story
by ZARXAR
Summary: In 2022, the newest and greatest MMORPG is released and 4 French students manage to get their hands on the limited copies. But in this game, if you die, you die in real life. Can these players survive to the very end or will they become part of the tragedy that is Sword Art Online. Note: This story is already in the crossover list, just wanted to post it here as well.
1. Launch

_4:30 am, November 6th, 2022._

Marinette couldn't sleep. She was excited. She was up all night chatting on her computer with Alya and Nino watching watching the time tick down. At 5 am sharp, they were going to experience the greatest game ever created, Sword Art class.

They were extremely lucky. Nino managed to get digital two copies online when the store when the online store first opened. He paid for one of those bots to grab it as quickly as possible. One for himself and one for his lovely girlfriend. Alya wasn't too into the whole idea, but Nino was talking about this game nonstop for the last year, keeping up with constant updates, blogs, and reviews. They all pointed to one conclusion: SAO is amazing. Alya was at least happy that she wouldn't hear about it anymore on their dates, that was part of the deal.

Marinette's father has been a fan video games since he was a child. He loved to play the old NES games with her when she was little and loved to watch her excitement and joy when playing them. So when he over heard a true virtual reality MMORPG was in development when Nino mentioned it in the bakery, he was hooked. He went one day and bought all the hardware needed to play and upgraded the internet in their home, which her mom wasn't that excited about. Unlike Nino however, Marinette's father only managed to snag a single copy without any fancy bots. He waited and just got lucky, but he was very excited. Marinette was excited too, they agreed to share a character since there was only one copy and you'd have to fly all the way to Japan for another one, which wasn't going to.

But, an unforeseen problem arose. On launch day, the servers would open at 1 pm JST, which was 5 am in Paris, which meant he couldn't play because he had to bake everything before the customers arrived at 6 am. And he couldn't let the quality of his work slip because of a game. He wouldn't recover. So Marinette was able start the game with her friends on at the launch.

Chloe scoffed at them about their excitement at school, claiming it was a waste of time and that it would make sense that they would want to escape to a different world, considering how lame their were in the real world. It look every ounce of Alya, and Nino holding her back, to not slug the pretentious brat in her face. It didn't matter what she thought, all that mattered was that they were going to be together for what was going to be a truly amazing moment in gaming history. Who knows, maybe she was really jealous of them.

They had all got ready. Checked for all updates, set up the NerveGears, calibrated for their profile. Everything was ready to go. They chatted and decided where they were going to meet in game and start their party. They started learning Japanese watching a few videos online, but they only managed to learn enough to say thing like: "Yes," "No," "Thank you," "Please," and "Where are we." But the game supported french text so they hoped it would work out. With a few minutes left before the servers were up, they thought about how crazy it was that they all got copies and how even Max missed out. They were probably the only people in France to have copies of the game and that they probably won't be able to talk to anyone else in the game, at least for a while./span/p

 _4:55 am_

They said their goodbyes and wished good luck on the other side. Marinette grabbed the NerveGear helmet and plugged it in to the computer and turned it on. She placed it over her head and laid flat on her chase with a cat pillow under her head. She laid there and stared at the clock in the upper higher corner, waiting for it to read 5:00. She imagined the colorful world she was about to enter and the excitement ran through her skin. Her breathing slowed and when the clock struck 5, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath…

LINK START!

* * *

 _ **Authors Note: Alright, this chapter is shorter then all the rest will be, the next chapter will be up soon, just gotta fix a few things. Also, if you haven't watched SAO, it might be a good idea to watch the first 12 episodes since that's what this is based off of. I'm not going into the other story lines and this is NOT a retelling of the SAO plot but with Miraculous characters. Anyways, thanks for reading!**_


	2. Town of Beginnings

Adrien stared at his computer screen, watching the live stream of the Japanese game coverage of SAO. His father was commissioned as the a designer of some of the costumes in the game, especially in the light armor category. Because of his work on the game, a signed physical copy of the game from the games creator, Kayaba Akihiko, as well as access to the beta was given to his father the month before the release. But his father had no use for such games, so he gave it to his son and upgraded his computer to run it. He wanted to make sure the product was up to the standard that wouldn't discredit his brand or name. After Adrien's approval, his father let the developers put his brand on the final product.

When Adrien wasn't fencing, modeling, playing piano, or studying his homeschool material, he was playing the SAO beta. At first he had sever lag issues from being so far away, but those were quickly fixed partly on his request to have a physical ethernet cable running to his computer, and the progression and improvement of the servers.

Adrien truly enjoyed his time in SAO. It was an escape for him. It was an escape from his responsibilities, his father, his life. In the game, he was who he wanted to be. He felt unstoppable. He would log in everyday just to escape his everyday life and his constant monitoring. Adrien would wait all day, through grueling photo shoots, lessons, and lectures just to play SAO before he went to sleep. He even asked his father is he could start taking Japanese lessons instead of Chinese to get better at the game and communicate with the other beta testers. His father agreed that it was time for him to learn a third language.

Adrien watched the Japanese livestream of the game's launch, he was able to pick up what they were saying pretty well, but still had a hard time with some words and phrases they would use. But he was excited none the less. He wanted to finally experience the full game and with other players. The beta got lonely, there was only 1000 players spread across such a massive game. There were stretches of time where he wouldn't interact with anyone besides the NPCs, he wanted to truly immerse himself into the MMO experience. Find a party, join a guild, make friends. Things he couldn't do in the real world. He didn't care if he was the only player in France, and that he couldn't meet his new friends in the real world, he just wanted to share some fun experiences with others and live the life that he wanted to.

As the launch time got closer and closer, the excitement of the streamers and dominators increased and so did Adrien's. He didn't have any obligations the that day, he had Natalie move everything to give him a day just to play this game with all the other players. He really never told Natalie how much he appreciated her and how good she was at manipulating his father to do things that Adrien couldn't dream of asking for.

With time ticking down, Adrien got ready to log in to the game. He closed the live stream, prepared his bed and plugged the NerveGear in. He laid in his bed with his NerveGear on his head, happy and excited to make some new friends and experience a whole new adventure.

And when the clock struck 5...

LINK START

* * *

In that moment, a myriad of of color quickly flew by, engulfing Adrien in a sense of wonder and familiarity. Circles appeared, checking his senses and vitals, all ready and normalized. His login information is quickly entered and approved. A grey backdrop with the words "Sword Art Online" appear in front of him for a few seconds before quickly fading into back to black. Then he felt a sudden sense of weightlessness. He saw teal and blue triangle appear inches from his face and slowly disappear to reveal the world around him. His weightlessness disappeared and he felt his heels land on the ground. He landed in the central part of the first town, next to the central clocktower that marks the center of the first floor of the game. He was surrounded by a beautiful central cathedral and archways clearly inspired by St. Peter's Basilica and the Piazza San Pietro of Vatican City. He looked around, surrounded by loud new players all in awe of what was around them, it did look they were in another world. He look at his hands and gripped them, making sure he wasn't dreaming. A smile was the only thing that could be on his face. He had a grin larger than any child on their birthday. He was ecstatic.

He looked at himself, he was covered in the standard starting gear. He chose to go with the light green shirt with black pants, with the standard leather chest plate and leather boots. He also chose the single short sword as his starting weapon. Adrien customized his character to resemble him to a degree, he kept the the blonde hair and green eyes but made his hair much longer, and gave himself a few extra centimeters in height.

After some inspection, Adrien realized he could fell the cloth in his shoulders and the weight of the chest plate him, he gripped the sword at his side, and felt the leather and creases in the handle. This didn't feel like a game, this felt real. With a large smile, Adrien couldn't hold it anymore and let out a huge scream of excitement and ran as fast as he could down the piazza towards the lake in front of him. He felt the air rush past his face and through his hair. Weaving through people walking around the town and experiencing the same thing he was. He was in his heaven. He ran around the cathedral and piazza until he was out of breath, he stopped and hunched over, placing his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. Adrien looked up, still with a large smile on his face, this is what he wanted. A place to be a kid.

He walked to the shopping district with the extra Cor he had from being a beta tester. He wanted to find an upgraded sword before heading out to start killing boars, accepting quests, leveling skills and making new friends. The amount of people around him made him really happy, he could kind of make some conversations out that people were having, talking about prices, skills, upgrades, items, and the game in general. He stopped at booths he had been to in the beta, and compared what skills and items he wanted. He decided that he wanted to try something different than he did in he beta, upgrading his standard short sword to a single-handed long sword mounted to his back rather than the mace and shield he had in the beta. He also grabbed some medium-armored gloves, nearly sending all of his Cor. Adrien then stopped at a booth down the street a ways to grab extra healing items, food and water. He was ready to find a party and start questing.

"Hey wait up, I think there are some cool stuff over here!"

Adrien looked over his left shoulder to see a darker skin player run by him, pointing ahead into the crowd. Adrien turned his body to the left to see two girls running towards him, trying to catch up.

"Nino! I'm gonna kill you!" yelled one with orange hair, running past Adrien at a high rate of speed with an angry look in her eye. The other girl stopped infront of Adrien and took a minute a catch her breathe. She was dressed in the standard girls outfit for the game, long sleeves with a skirt half way down her thighs with a brown hem at the end of the skirt and sleeves. She appeared to have chosen the pink color too. It matched well with her big blue eyes and blueish hair that was tied in a bun in the back of her head with chop sticks. He didn't realize that he had been staring at her until she turned her head and stared back at him. Adrien stood there frozen for a second, realizing how creepy he probably looked. His pupils dilated in the fear until he closed his eyes and gave a small smile with a small hand wave. He opened his eyes and saw her return the gesture to him, before looking back at the couple running away.

"Wait up you guys!" she yelled, before getting back to following them. Adrien turned and watched the girl disappear into the crowd and thought about what he just witnessed. Then it hit him

They were speaking French.


	3. A New Friend

"Why are they like this?" Marinette asked herself while playing catchup with Nino and Alya.

Nino had gotten word from a random player that there was a rare item for sale out on the outskirts of the Town of Beginnings that was limited to the first few players that managed to get there. Without asking any questions, he just started sprinting telling the girls to follow him. He was running as like a mad man. Alya was in pursuit, yelling obscenities and questions at him, but Nino choosing to ignore his fiery girlfriend kept running. Marinette, confused, ran trying to catch up with Alya through the busy market streets, weaving in and out of players, shops, and NPCs. Marinette was barely able to keep up with Alya in pursuit of the item-crazed newbie.

She began to feel tired, physically tired. Nino said something about the game being able to determine little bits of your physique and athletic abilities from the NerveGear setup process. She did take a simple quiz about her exercise and physical body when setting up the machine, but it didn't phase her as anything important. Now she could see why it was. She began to slow down, her stamina was running out and she needed to stop or else she might die from exhaustion. Which would be a very embarrassing first death and something Nino would loom over her head for a while. She stopped and crouched over her knees, placed her arms on them, trying to catch a breathe. When she lifted her head, she could see how far and fast they were really going, nothing some vendor was selling could be worth all this she thought. Marinette saw out of the corner of her eye someone watching her. She turned in their direction and caught the boy player staring at her. He jolted, knowing that he was caught. He then closed his eyes and gave a smile that read "Please don't think I'm a creep" while giving a small waving gesture. Marinette chuckled a bit and returned the wave back to him with a small smile, she would be staring too if she was three random people running and yelling at each other in a foreign language. She then turned back at the crowd of people. Her smile quickly disappeared as she realized she could no longer see either Alya or Nino.

"Wait up you guys!" she yelled, in a futile attempt to try and get them to hear her. She began sprinting through the crowded streets again, trying to find her friends.

* * *

Little did she know that Nino was still running, but he was starting to feel it too. Still with a little glee in his step he stepped out of the mass of people to try and slither through some of the back alleys. When the opening came, he jolted to the left and through an alley way, slowing down to a stop. Alya saw him and followed suit into the dark alley, grabbing the back of his shirt and twisting him around. Nino nearly fell to his knees at the sight of his furious girlfriend. He could only muster up was smile and a laugh. But Alya was not laughing.

"What the hell are you thinking?!" She asked, hitting him over the head with her fist. His HP dropped 1 point.

"Hey, no friendly fire. Whats the big deal?"

"You tell me! We just ran through half of the city following your dumb ass for no reason!"

"There's a rare item on this side of town a vendor is giving out, AND in limited quantities, don't you want the best stuff?"

"Who told you that?" Alya barked, placing her hands at the side of her hips.

"Uh… this guy…" Nino said, trying not to make her any madder than she was.

"Then WHY don't you tell us before sending us on a wild goose chase through A MILLION PEOPLE on some rumor from some rando! Marinette and I nearly died chasing you." Alya gestured behind her with an open hand, waiting for the response of the blue haired girl behind her.

When nothing was said, Alya quickly turned her head in fear. There was no Marinette behind her. She was not in the alley with them. Nino looked in the same direction and realized they had lost her.

"Don't worry, don't worry," Nino said hastily, trying not to rile up the orange haired player ready to pull her mace out, "I'll find her on my friends list and it'll show me where she is.

"Really?" Alya questioned gripping the mace at her side, "When did you add her?"

Nino's face shot up, his pupils dilated. They never added each other in the game. They all spawned close to each other so they never thought about it. "Oh" was the only thing he could muster, looking at Alya, giving a similar look.

* * *

Meanwhile, Marinette was trying not to run into anybody. "Seriously where could they be?" she thought. She ran a bit more before coming to the intersection of 2 large streets where people were gathering and chatting with one another by a large fountain in the center. She slowed down, looking at the three paths that were before her. Marinette gave a large sigh and hung her head in defeat. They were no where to be found and they could have gone in any direction. She slowly trotted and took a seat on the edge of the fountain, letting out another sigh as she tried to think where her friends could be. She considering going back to the cathedral and the spawning zone as it was the last common place they were all together.

"HEEEEEEEYYYYYY"

She heard a voice yelling in front of her.

"HEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYY"

There it was again. This time she poked her head up to see what was happening and saw the boy she caught staring at her from earlier waving his arm in the air trying to get her attention. She got up from the fountain and took a step towards the strange boy. When he got close to her, she then realized she could actually understand him.

"Wait you speak French?" pointing at him in disbelief.

"Yeah, I thought I would have been the only French player on here!" Adrien replied. "What happened to those people you were chasing, they can speak French too, right?"

Marinette looked at him, not knowing what to say. This was all a bit too much for her at the moment. "Uhh…" was the only thing she could say.

Adrien gave her a concerned look.

"Well, you see…" Marinette said sheepishly.

Adrien eyebrows lifted as he understood what was happening. "Oh, well you can find out where they are on the map." He gave a smile, lifting his right hand up and swiping downward to open up the game menu.

"Wait, how did you do that?" Marinette asked.

"Do what?" Adrien relied.

"Open that." She asked, pointing at the vertical line of circles in front of him.

"Well just swipe you right hand in a downward motion and it'll bring the main menu up. The second circle down is the friends list. Here let me add you first." Adrien smiled and sent a friends request to the girl. A small text box with appeared in front of Marinette saying "Adrien has send you a request to be friends" with a red circle and a blue circle.

"Press the blue one then open the list and you'll see my name."

Marinette accepted the request and mirrored the motion of this "Adrien" boy and brought up the menu and the list of friends. He was the only one on there.

"Now press my name and a map will pop up next to it. See?"

Marinette followed the directions and a small mini map of the surrounding are with a green diamond and a blue diamond right next to each other. "Oh yea, so the green on is me and the blue on is you, right?"

"Yea that's right" Adrien said giving a smile to the girl.

"Alright, but that doesn't solve my current problem. I don't have the friends I was with on this list. I still don't know where they are." Marinette said, collapsing the her menu. "I think it's best if I head back to the spawning area, that really the last place we were before, well, my friend Nino ran off and this chase started happening."

"Why don't I come with you? I think we could be friends, we might be the only players that speak French, and I would like to meet more if I could." Adrien said, placing his hand on his neck, trying not to sound like one of those internet starker types.

What was Marinette supposed to do. She couldn't imagine the teasing she would get from Alya both in the game world and the real world if she had a boy with her when she found them and that was something that the did not need in her life.

"Uh.. sure, I don't really know where I am anyway and you seem to know the ropes so maybe you can teach me a thing or two before we get there." Marinette said, turning and starting to head west.

"Great" Adrein said, closing his eyes with a smile. "But you're going the wrong way, Marinette."


	4. The Death Game Begins

"Shit! Where could she be? Damn it Mari." Alya said to herself under her breathe, frantically running in and out of streets looking for a certain blue haired girl.

Alya and Nino were running round the nearby areas trying to find Marinette in a sea of people, checking every booth, alley, and crowd. They agreed to meet back in the alley they met at after 20 minutes of searching for an update with each other. Nino took the North and West directions while Alya took to the South and East, that way there was minimal overlap in their search. Alya looked at the clock and saw that 14 passed and she started her trek back to Nino. She was worried sick for the girl, and felt like such a terrible friend for leaving her in a strange new place. When she arrived, Nino was already standing there, hoping for Alya to be followed by another body.

"Did you find her?" Nino asked.

"No! Did you?" Pointing at the boy.

"No, I had no luck. Maybe she logged out? The could be texting us and we would have no idea."

"I didn't even think of that! Maybe we should log out and check, maybe I should call her parents too just in case."

Nino gave her a nod. They both lifted their hands and opened their menus to the last circle, the Settings. They then scrolled to the last option, where the log out button should be.

Should be.

They both were flush with confusion. They both stared at their menus so what felt like an entirety, trying to figure out if there was some sort of mistake. Nino starts to franticly open very option and sub menu her could find to find the damn log out button. Alya just stared at the empty box, a look a despair and hopelessness came over her, not believing what was happening.

"We need to find Mari," Aya said in a cold, distraught tone, "Fast"

* * *

Meanwhile, Adrien and Marinette made it to back to the cathedral. On their way they talked about various things about the game, its mechanics and the best spots to go to after the starting zone. They also discussed the type of skills and roles they wanted to play in the game. Adrien was keen on being a Zoro type character, mainly being a damage dealer using the Rapier skill to deal consecutive quick blows to opponents and wear a mix of light and medium armor classes. He explained that he like to play the rather sarcastic yet charismatic character who loves to toy with his enemies.

Marinette was more unsure of what she wanted to play. She liked the idea of being in the front lines of battle as a tank, facing the enemy head on, but she knew that there was a very specific path she had to take to be any good at it. Any deviation from the standard skill set that tanks possess in a game like SAO could be disastrous for the party and lead to the death of the entire party. She liked the idea of having some flexibility in the way that she played. She also had to consider that the player wasn't entirely her's either, she had to consider what her father would want to play as well.

They sat at the steps of the Teleport Gate in front of the cathedral, keeping a look out for an orange haired girl with a tall dark skinned man. They didn't say much to each other as they both were intensely scanning and rescanning the area for the two players. After about 10 minutes had passed, players started warping into the central plaza. It didn't strike Marinette was something odd, but Adrien stood up and watched with a concerned look in his eye. What was going on? Something like that couldn't be possible. Players don't have access to teleportation crystals until level 5. There was no way that many players could access the crystals yet, plus they were sitting at the Teleport Gate. They would all naturally all Teleport to where they were not in the plaza. Marinette took notice of Adrien sudden concern, but before she could say anything, she was engulf in a wash of blue and teal triangles.

"Marinette!" Adrien yelled out swinging his arm towards the girl in an attempt to grab her. Adrien was then suddenly engulfed in the same blue and teal triangles.

When Adrien opened his eyes, he was in a see of confused people. All of them asking the same question, "What the hell just happened?" To his left he heard the familiar voice of a girl, turning to hear his own name being shouted.

"Adrien!" Marinette shouted. She was about 50 feet away from Adrien with a number of people between them. Adrien made his way towards her, pushing people out of the way.

"What's happening?" she asked.

"I don't know, this has never happened. Maybe its some sort of welcoming event?"

"I have a bad feeling about this."

"Marinette!"

Marinette turned her head behind her to see two familiar faces, running towards her.

"Alya! Nino!" Marinete yells out. Adrien turns his head to see the two running towards them. Alya extends her arms out and grab the small bluenette for a hug. Marinette a bit stunned at the gesture. Nino slows and stands behind the girls having their moment.

"I thought we lost you!" Alya says into Marinette's shoulder, eyes closed.

"I'm alright, thanks for worrying about me." Marinette responds, placing her hand on the back of Alya's head, giving Nino a warm smile.

Players are still warping around them.

"We should go towards an exit." Adrien says to the group, breaking the moment.

"Whose this guy?" Nino asks Marinette as Adrein makes his way towards on of the large archways on the east side of the piazza.

"He's a guy I met while chasing you two. He's also French." The group of three followed Adrein, who was looking at the sky like everyone else.

When they made it and look up as well, the sky was already red. Blood seemed to seep from the sky and pooled into a very large gelatinous ball over the head of the players. It moved organically and started to form a shape. A man about 50 feet tall with no face, covered in a very large blood red robe with gold filigree and decoration. Every one looked at the large man in a mix of awe, fear, and confusion. Some screamed and panicked, others fell to the ground, some tried to play it as some theatrical launch day ceremony. Alya covered her mouth, staring at the red cladded man in total fear. Marinette drew a look of concern. Nino gawked in pure disbelief. And Adrein stood there stone faced, stairing waiting to see what was going to happen.

"My name is Akihiko Kayaba. And as of this moment, I am in control of this world." It spoke.

"What's he saying?" Nino asked. Marinette turned to Adrien to see if he could translate any of what he was saying to them.

But Adrien just stood there, mouth gaped at the sight before him. The creator of the game? The man who gave his father of copy of his game, looking down at them as if they were insects, some kind of experiment. Adrien couldn't say anything. He was too much in disbelief of what was happening. He basically drowned out every other noise besides the man in red, clutching to every syllable for any answers to what was going on.

"I'm sure most of you have already noticed an item missing from your main menus - the log out button. Let me assure you, this is not a defect in the game. I repeat, this is not a defect. This is how "Sword Art Online" was designed to be."

Adrien stood there, trying to concentrate on the understanding what was being said. He wasn't entirely clear on what was being said, but he knew it was bad.

"You cannot log yourselves out of SAO, and no one from the outside will be able to shut down or remove the 'NerveGear' from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the NerveGear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life."

"Despite my warning, the families and friends of some of the players have attempted removing the NerveGear, an unfortunate decision, to say the least. As a result, the game now has two hundred thirteen less players than when it began. They've been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world."

"As you can see, international media outlets have round-the-clock coverage of everything, including the deaths. At this point, it's safe to assume the likelihood of a NerveGear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you a little comfort as you try to clear the game. It's important to remember the following: There is no longer any way to revive someone within the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system... forever.

And the NerveGear will simultaneously destroy your brain. There is only one way for a player to escape now - you must clear the game. Right now, you're gathered on Floor One, the lowest level of Aincrad. If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss, you may advance to the next floor. Defeat the boss on Floor 100, and you will clear the game."

"Last but not least, I've placed a little present in the item storage of every player. Please have a look."

"Right now, you are probably wondering why. Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and NerveGear, do this? Ultimately, my goal was a simple one. The reason I created Sword Art Online was to control the fate of a world of my design."

"As you can see, I have achieved my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck."

The man in the red rope folded in on himself and then disappeared, the sky turning back to the blue color it once was. Everyone stood there for a moment, taking a moment to process what just happened. Then…

Panic.

Everyone in the cathedral started to panic at what was just said. Chaos ensued. Players were screaming, crying, running away, some just stood there, faces white not knowing how to handle with what was going on. Alya, Marinette, and Nino turned to each other, looking very scared and confused with what was going on. Whatever it was it was not good. Marinette turned to look at the blonde boy who stood there still staring at the sky.

"Adrien?" she said, almost whispering it as she extended her arm, grabbing his sleeve and tugging to grab his attention.

Adrien turn to the three scared and confused players, looking for any answers he could give to them. He looked at them with a determined, almost scowling face at them.

"We need to get out of here."

* * *

 _ **Author's Note: Alright guys, Thanks for sticking with it for now. I should have had this up yesterday but... things happen. Hopefully I'll have the next one up for tomorrow. Again let me know anything you'd like to see or anything in general. Questions, corrections, anything. Thanks for reading!**_


	5. A Disjointed Team

Adrien led the group to the outskirts of the Town of Beginnings before telling the other French teenagers the reality of what was said by the man in the red cloak. Their eyes grew in disbelief. Adrien had a hard time even repeating what was going on, staring at his own feet, unable to face them. Marinette after a while joined him at staring at the uninteresting ground. Their whole lives had now changed. They were the puppets of this mad man's world. A world they knew not a thing about. They were like infants discovering everything for the first time, but without any parents to keep them from the horrors of the new world. Adrien suggested that they fled to the next town over and stay the night. He reasoned that chances were that all the mobs, quests and item would quickly be limited where they were now. Nino agreed, Alya nodded, and Marinette stood silent. With the chaos that was around them, it isn't occur to any of them that they had changed into their actual physical bodies from their avatars. None of them really were all that different from their real appears when they created their avatars, expect for the Adrien. It had bugged Marinette that he looked so familiar to her but she couldn't remember where she had seen him before, but she never confronted him about it. They were too busy trying to come up with a plan on what to do now. There weren't any good ideas. Should they wait for someone to shut the servers down? Would the batteries run out of their NerveGears and they would be transported back to the real world? No one knew. They all went to bed that at the local inn in depressed moods. None of them spoke a word, and none of them could really sleep.

That was a little less than ago. Since then, there had been progress. Well, some progress. They managed to obtain some quests and kill some monsters to wet their feet a bit but not without difficulty. Nino nearly died trying to fight 3 boars at once. Since then, they have been stagnant on their leveling. More players came and there have been few mobs that aren't being fought over by players. Even when they do go and try to level, they might get 2 or 3 fights in total for a day. Morale with the group was low. Adrien got out of the inn, deciding to take a walk around the town at sunset. The scenery would take his mind off of another day of scrapping by. He felt useless to his new friends, even he could even qualify as friends to them. Adrien came to aa small stone wall by a large tree and sat. He contemplated about a few things at the sunset. His golden hair shimmering as he sat there with an empty gaze at the mountains in the distance. He thought about how someone could make such a beautiful world then decide to make it a cruel one. Was this a man taking revenge on a world cruel to him? Or did he want to know what it was to be God? His thoughts then drifted from the Man in Red Robes to the people he had met in his world. Even though it had already been a month, with the given circumstances, he hasn't really gotten to know them very well. After long days of failing a quest or attacking mobs of whatever they could find, no one was in the mood for talking, mostly just sulking. He didn't want it to be that way anymore, but didn't know how to change it. They were a team and needed to be one if they were going to try and survive this game. They made it this far.

By the time Adrien woke up from his daydreaming, the sun had already set and the stars filled the sky. He looked up at the infinite small speckles through the darkened sky, and wondered how long he had been gone for. A minute passed before he heard something: laughing followed by groans of pain. He hoped himself up on the wall so he could stand, looking down the road to see what the commotion was about. He saw three people, two looking like players and the other like an NPC. The NPC on the ground with the players taking turns kicking and laughing. Adrien felt a tinge of disbelief followed by a red-hot fire in his stomach as another took a swing at the NPC. Without a second thought, Adrien ran on the stonewall, towards the two players. Adrien had placed some of his skill points in speed so it didn't take long before he arrived at the scene. The NPC was an older looking man, shorter than normal NPCs. He had his hands wrapped around his stomach and was groaning in pain from the beating these two players were giving him. The two players looked like delinquents. One was very tall with a blonde mohawk. He was wearing the most basic armor set in purple and carrying a long spear from the Town of Beginnings. The other was more normal looking: short dark hair with a single sword on his back and a shield to match, wearing light blue armor.

"Hey!" Adrien yelled as he came up to the three of them, jumping off of the wall and into the middle of the two players, right next to the NPC. "What the hell are you guys doing?" he said in an angry tone.

The two players looked confused. They looked at each other then started to speak to each other in Japanese. Of course, Adrien had very little clue what they were saying, only being able to figure out a few words. "Foreign player" and "now what?" were about as much as he could pick up. Adrien looked down at the NPC who was still reeling from the pain before back up at the two players. He didn't grab his sword has he didn't want to engage in a 2-on-1 player battle, he struggled enough with the monsters.

"I asked what the hell is going on?" He yelled again.

This time the two players just laughed before the tall one motioned to the other one to scram. The two left in a rather unconcerned manner, just walking away and laughing a bit more down the road. Adrien scowled at the two as they walked away before turning his attention to the old man. Adrien grabbed the mans arm and singed it over his shoulder and picked up the man to get him on his feet. Adrien now got a better look at the NPC. He was short with gray hair ad a goatee like beard and mustache. He looked like he was of asian origin or whatever the game's equivalent was. The NPC had his head down with his eyes shut in pain still but it subsided and he opened his eyes. The NPC turned to the golden haired boy and smiled before picking his hand off of Adrien's shoulder.

Adrien was surprised at the NPCs recovery but let him off of his shoulders before asking "Are you alright?" in a natural reaction.

"Yes, I am. Thank you for the help." The old man said in fluent French. Adrien nearly jumped at the surprise of understanding the NPC, but on second thought it could have been possible that there were select NPCs with multiple language functions, but that moment he didn't try to think about it too hard.

"Ah, no problem. Will everything be alright now?" Adrien asked.

"Oh yes. I think Ill be fine for now." The man said with a smile. He looked over the boy once again before turning and grabbing something out of his pocket. The NPC then turned back to Adrien holding up a small octagonal box with what appearing to be Chinese lettering on top.

"I think heroes get rewards when they help people. So please take this." The man said, lifting the box up just a smidge more.

"Oh thank you." Adrien said, taking the box out if the man's hand. Adrien brought the box close to him and looked down slightly to open it. Inside was a black ring, with a circle and a free paw in the center of it. It probably is some kind of animal aspect type buff he thought. He then looked back up at the old man, who was no longer there. Adrien looked around quickly, but there was no sign of the man left. He looked back at the ring, before closing the box and placing it in his inventory to check the stats later.

Adrien then pulled up his map to see where he was in respect to the inn they were staying. He was a bit far but noticed something strange. He squinted at his screen as he noticed that there were only two dots at the inn. He scratched his head and zoomed out to see if he could find the stray dot somewhere. After circling the area for a moment, he found one more dot out and about. But they were farther than him from town. Adrien clicked the small bubble on his map to see it was Marinette, wondering somewhere east of the where the rest of them were. She was clearly outside of the safe-zone of the town and could easily be ambushed by a monster or even another player.

"What the hell is she thinking?" was all he could say.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Okay. Please don't hate me for taking a such a long break. I know it's been too long, and I'm not here to make excuses. But I now hope that I can be more regular with this. I'm glad to see that even as I've been gone, many have still read the story and continue to where I left. It makes me very happy and only makes me want to continue this more. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I'm readying up the next one already. I have some plans to take you all on a ride with me. :)**


	6. A Shred of Determination

Marinette left the couple alone, they deserved a little bit of alone time with one another after all that has happened. The lit streets were gorgeous and somewhat nostalgic. Paris seemed like a such distance memory as of late, that it was almost painful to be reminded of it. The beauty of the city and her home were not something that she thought much about before now. Being reminded of the real world gave her a faint warmth in her chest, followed by the harsh chill at the remembrance of where she really was. Marinette wasn't a girl to lettings keep her down for every long, but this was a whole there level than one of Chloe's schoolyard insults or a bad grade. There was a no longer a feeling of safety anymore, or hope sometimes.

It was that kind of thinking that made Marinette run into a stone wall from her head being down. She made an audible noise on impact, followed by a series of sharp breathes and wincing in pain. Marinette leaned agains the wall and just took a moment, placing a hand on her forehead and the other on her noise, "Ow" still coming out her mouth in irregular intervals. After a minute or two, the pain started to recede, slowly. Marinette started her stroll once again, passing by several late night NPC carts that would always try and sell players unless and common items. Even though they were NPCs, Marinette always had the need to wave and say "no thanks" to anyone that offered anything. A trait that always annoyed Alya too much. She would have to drag Marinette out of a mob of NPCs holding chickens or jewelry to sell. Alya would tell her about how a player could pickpocket her and that she was keeping everyone back. The boys would laugh at the tough love much of the time, as it was now a recurring joke between them. Nothing would ever change though, Marinette was too nice of a person to ignore even the computers, but at night, there was less of that. She continued her walk through the town, staring at the starlit sky.

Marinette's thoughts returned to the game. It had almost been a month since this tragedy had started, and a rough month at that. No one has been able to defeat the first floor, no one has even found the boss room, and there was 100 of them to get through. Her and the rest of the gang had decided that they should be at least proactive in the game, rather than just staying in the Town of Beginnings and rot away until someone saved them. But being proactive meant they would risk their lives every time they went out. It scared her deeply, even though she tried her best not to show it. A brave front was the best way to not be left behind she thought. But even that wasn't enough. It seemed everyday, Alya, Adrein, and Nino would surpass her. Alya proved herself to be excellent at strategy and acting as a leader, Nino was a good tank and Adrien filled seemingly filled any void that was needed, being very adaptive. She felt like she had no place in the team and didn't contribute much. Sometimes even acting like a ball and chain to them. She blamed herself at Nino's near death experience, having failed to switch out with him in time to heal. Though Nino said that he didn't blame her, she still felt responsible, and if Nino had died… she couldn't bring herself to think of such thoughts.

Marinette had to take a seat, and pull herself together before returning to the inn. She took a breathe and just sat for a moment, emptying her mind of all the negative thoughts, and trying to return to a more neutral state of mind. As she opened her eyes, she found there to be an old man laying on the street in front of her making groans of pain. She was startled by the man, and looked around to see if anyone else was around, but the streets around her were empty. her eye widen at the realization that the man was in pain, and immediately came to him and lifted him up on her shoulders and placed him on the bench. She sat him up right and noticed that he didn't have a player maker on him.

"Are you alright?" She asked, almost not expecting answer.

The man creaked his neck to the side before opening his eyes slowly, "I am, to a degree." He said before rolling his neck back into position. "I was ambushed, by thieves and well they did a toll on me." He explained.

"Thieves? I didn't see anyone else around?" The girl kneeled and asked curiously.

"That's cause I ran like hell, then collapsed." The man rebutted. A small smile came to his face, as if making light of the whole situation. The two of them stayed like that for a moment before the man slowly got back to his feet and lifted himself up to his feet. The two made eye contact before the old man reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small box that looked to be of a Chinese origin. "Here. A gift for your kindness." The old man said present the box to Marinette.

Marinette took the box with a smile, but with a bit of reluctant grab, She didn't know what it could be and the whole situation seemed rather strange to her, but it wold have been rude to decline it. She took the box up to her face then lifted the lid, which revealed the item. Inside there was a pair of simple earrings, they were circular, painted red with black spots all over them, they looked like two little ladybugs. Marinette thanked the man and placed the jewelry in her bag, to look at a bit later.

The whole situation seemed strange, then again there were many things abut this new world that were strange, and there wouldn't be much of a point to think about it for too long. Marinette's mind then turned back to her friends and her failures. Her chest became heavy with dread, regret and self-loathing. Why couldn't she get better like everyone else? Why was she so bad at games like this? Why did this happen to her? Her thoughts wondered, just as she did.

Seemingly no time passed, but the girl already found herself on the outskirts east of the town. There was a small field before thick dark forest, separating the safe zone from the mobs in the game. Marinette stared into the forest, not looking to deep past the first layers of trees. She then suddenly felt a swell of air in her chest. A sense of determination and bravery wash over her frame and she closed her eyes. Ayla might kill her, but she suddenly felt like she needed to do something. She didn't want to feel like a ball and chain around the ankles of everyone around her.

And so Marinette charged in to the dense trees, to fight on her own.

* * *

The couple laid down on the bed together. One of Nino's hand behind his head and the other wrapped around his significant other. Ayla's head rested on the boy's chest and she drew circles on his exposed stomach.

"They've been out for too long. You don't think?" Ayla stoped with her finger and looked up at Nino.

"What? They aren't stupid. For all we know, they could be together." He said, looking up at the ceiling of the inn's room.

Alya's eye brows raised at the thought, then back down at the reality. "She's not that forward, but they'd make a cute couple."

"But is he?" Nino retorted.

"I would know, and she isn't good at lying."


End file.
